( 28 ) Page 28 Silent Death Chapter 4 Consequences

Page 28 Chapter 4 Consequences

In Amber Cornish’s office Mack and Doors had just filled Amber in with the recent arrest of Lars Johanson for Lanes Murder , ” I don’t think the murder will stick as it wasn’t premeditated , just bad luck by the sounds of it a bit of industrial espionage that went terribly wrong ” Doors remarked ” I am more concerned where that machine is now and who are these people that want it so badly they are threatening to kill a family for it , we need to find out as much as we can about them they are the real villains here that we should be catching ” Mack nodded his agreement and added ” We need to see if the device they put on that machine is still functioning if it is, then we could most likely lock into that signal and find out just where the machine is now ” Amber went to a cabinet on the far side of her office inside was a collection of charts, ” These charts are a grid of the EE1’s station keeping orbit, in other words this is the area in which the EE1 stays whilst in Earth orbit . We occupy an area of some 40 square kilometers , the free drift of the station varies with each orbit within this area. The Nagami is the most logical place the machine could have been, we have had eye witness reports of what happened on that ship the machine must have been on board. Using these charts we can set grids to search and cover the whole area where the Nagami broke up, using the stations sensors we should be able to detect any radio signal coming from that machine . But if not we can still find it by searching in a methodical order , lets get the shuttles prep’d and we can begin the search”

The news of Lars Johansons arrest for Lanes murder soon spread through out the station, the killer had been caught and everyone could sleep sound tonight knowing it . However little did they know that plans where being set that would jeopardize their very survival, the people who had designs on the RG1 where not going to give in so easily. Already they had made plans to recover the RG1 from space , little knowing to Mack Doors and Professor Cornish someone aboard the station had already reported to the Nest what had occurred on EE1 . In communications a wide scan frequency analyzer had been set to scan for close low or high band signals, it wasn’t long before the state of the art equipment on EE1 found what they had been looking for, a series of high frequency signals had been detected in roughly the location of the Nagami’s last position. Mack and Doors took a shuttle and searched the area , four hours later they managed to find a section of the Nagami that was from the Cargo hold . Still embedded in this section that had once been the wall of the cargo bay was the RG1 , ” We won’t be able to get that out while in space we need to hook it with a grapple and take it back to the station ” Mack decided . Doors maneuvered the shuttle to within a few meters of the debris, with expert precision Mack fired the grapple and caught a holding with his first shot. Gently they towed the large piece of steel and girders back to the station , they were directed to hangar 6 and gently they bought the shuttle in with it’s cargo in tow.

The hangar was pressurized and as the artificial gravity took effect the debris settled to the deck , Professor Cornish had quarantined the hangar only authorized personnel were allowed in the hangar. The professor had even arranged to have spacesuits found of a different manufacturer to those originally used, it was to avoid a re-occurrence of what happened to doctor Lane . Professor Campbell suited up and with Mack and Doors they moved to the machine still lodged in the wall, ” First thing we must do is remove the signaling device” instructed the Professor ” I have a Geiger counter so any increase in radiation and we abort, if this happens we will use the robot recovery arm to do what we must ” Gently they moved forwards the radiation meter flickered but stayed within the safe zone , Doors reached the device first and held on to the base while he opened the inspection hatch on the machine, he could clearly see the signaling device Lars had placed in the machine . He leaned forwards and dislodged the device from a cross member in the machine and removed it , he then closed the hatch and stepped away from the RG1 . ” I have it Professor ” and he gave it to Campbell who placed it into a screened box effectively isolating the signal and rendering the beacon useless to the Nest . ” Now they know we have the machine and they will do all they can now to retrieve it from us, we must be vigilant this is not over yet by a long way . We have already seen the lengths they will go to in order to get their hands on this device, the authorities on Earth have been notified and it has been decided that the RG1 will be taken to Area 51 “